


silhouettes

by jxnna



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Supernatural, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hunger Games AU, hg au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-07 16:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jxnna/pseuds/jxnna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean Winchester volunteers for his brother, Sam, when he's reaped for the Hunger Games. He's shipped off to the Capitol with his District 9 partner, Jo, where they're faced with the brutality of the games. Jo and Dean have completely different ideas for allies, and how to play the games. One thing's for certain, though. Dean has to make it back to Sam. He has to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> sorry i wrote this i know there's so many spn hunger games au's but i just had to
> 
> ok this will be uploaded in two parts the first part will go until the beginning of the games and the second part ill be all about the games so yay
> 
> i hope you guys stick through this i tried to make it fairly interesting and i think part 2 will make it stand out a bit from the other spn hg au's out there so ayy lmao
> 
> but yeah i hope you guys enjoy this!!!!

"I volunteer."

Dean hadn't even thought about the words before they escaped his mouth. All he could think about was the look of shock on his brother's face as they called his name , and that he had to look after him, no matter what.

He walks stiffly up to the platform to stand on the other side of Rufus, the not-so-Capitol looking man. The female tribute from District 9, a blonde girl named Jo, stood on the other side of him and Dean looks out at the crowd blankly, showing no emotion whatsoever. He knows that from the moment your name is picked, you're being watched. Showing weakness won't do you any good in these games.

"What's your name, son?" Rufus asks, pulling Dean out of his own mind, and he swallows a lump in his throat before he answers.

"Dean Winchester."

"That was your brother, then?" Rufus asks, and Dean nods stiffly, his eyes scanning the crowd before they land on Sam, who's visibly crying standing in the fenced off group of sixteen-year-old boys.

Rufus says something else but Dean can't be bothered to make an effort to listen, so he waits until the man ushers him and Jo off the stage and into the building behind them.

Dean is brought to a room where he sits alone for a minute or so. Eventually the door opens and Dean looks up to see Sam, along with two Peacekeepers who roughly shove him into the room and tell him he has two minutes.

Dean jumps to his feet and walks over to his brother, who's still crying while Dean wraps his arms around him in an attempt to comfort him, which is slightly ironic seeing as Dean's the one going to his death.

"You shouldn't have done that," Sam says, not releasing Dean and not seeming to have any intention of doing so.

"I wasn't going to let you die, Sammy."

"So you thought you dying was a better idea?"

"I saw it as you or me," Dean says, fnally pulling away from Sam and putting his hands on his brother's shoulders. "Dad said to take care of you, and that's what I'm doing."

"You're the last person I had," Sam chokes a bit, and Dean looks down to the ground sadly. "Our entire family is dead, Dean. What am I supposed to do?"

Dean has to think about this for a moment, because he honestly has no idea. "Talk to Madison. I'm sure her family will take you in if I don't come back."

"Don't say that," Sam whispers, staring directly into Dean's eyes. "Don't you dare. You are going to win. Promise me you're going to win."

"I can't promise that," Dean says with a shake of his head. "But I can promise that I'll try."

 

* * *

 

Dean sits on the seat of the train, staring out the window and wondering how a massive steel thing like this can travel so fast.

Jo sits across from him, holding a knife in her hand and spinning it around on the table. Dean takes to watching her while she's not looking, and as she spins the knife he watches as it digs a hole in the table. "You shouldn't do that, you know. They might get mad."

Jo looks up at him with a glare. "And what are they gonna do, kill me?"

Dean raises his eyebrows at her, and she rolls her eyes at him. It's obvious that she's either in a really pissy mood, or she just doesn't like him. He figures it's probably a mixture of both.

Just as the thought passes his mind, the doors at the back of the car they're in open and their assigned mentor, an old drunken man named Bobby Singer, walks into the car and sits at the table next to Jo. "Alright, you two. Best we get started now and not waste any time. First thing you do when you get into that arena and the countdown ends is you turn, you run, and if the oppertunity presents itself, you find each other."

"What makes you think I want him as an ally?" Jo snaps, taking Dean aback a bit but not exactly offending him.

"Because the game is easier played with others," Bobby answers, and Dean realizes just where his words are coming from. He remembers the girl from his district, Annie, saying those same words to Bobby in the year of their games. Bobby seems to read Dean's mind, though, because he looks away awkwardly and a bit sadly.

"I can make my own allies," Jo mutters, and Bobby glares at her.

"Do that. And with him, you've got one extra. If you want to live through this thing I suggest you listen to what I'm saying to you," Bobby snaps and Jo rolls her eyes, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Now, next thing is find water. You want win the game without water. Food is good, too, but only if you can catch it. Find someone you can trust who's good with weapons and can help you hunt for food. I can't tell you what the arena will be, but they don't usually hand out food on a silver platter."

Dean does his best to take in everything Bobby says. He has to win. He has to get back to Sam, no matter what.

 

* * *

 

Dean meets his stylist as soon as he gets into the building.

She's fairly plain-looking, for a Capitol woman, with only a head of vibrant pink hair to make her stand out from the others, but she smiles warmly at him as soon as they meet and she holds her hand out for him to shake.

"Dean Winchester, I'm your stylist. Pamela Barnes."

Dean nods, shaking her hand as she stares at him intently through narrowed eyes until he squirms away awkwardly.

"Sorry, you're just really... Attractive. This shouldn't be hard."

Dean's left wondering what shouldn't be hard, a question that's answered by her cutting his hair, touching up most elements of his face and even trimming his God damn leg hairs. By the time she's finished, Dean can't help feeling more naked than he already is standing in front of her, waiting for her to stop staring down his naked body like he's a piece of food.

Finally she hands him a robe and he puts it on as fast as he can, tying it tightly which makes her laugh a bit. "Right, you're from Nine. That's the... Grain and Agriculture," Pamela reads off a paper, and when she looks up to see Dean's raised eyebrows and laughs. "Sorry, I just got upgraded from Ten. I'm used to the livestock nation. I'm thinking of doing a farmer thing for you and Joanna. Something sexy."

Dean raises his eyebrows even higher at this.

 

* * *

 

The tribute parade wasn't anything huge. Dean and Jo were dressed as farmers- such a change from previous costumes from 9- and nobody was really impressed. By the end Dean was just exhausted and absolutely dreading training the next day.

 

* * *

 

Training takes a bit of effort.

Dean hadn't realized just how bad he is with weapons. But with anything other than a knife, he may as well be useless. He is a fast learner, though, so at least he's got that adavantage.

He spends the beginning of training in the knife station, but after getting shown up by the girl from 5, Ruby, he leaves and goes somewhere else.

Dean hangs around the bow and arrows for a while just trying to figure out how to load the thing. He figures if he can become at least a bit handy with it, he can do a bit more than just with his knife.

After a while someone comes up beside him and Dean casts a sideways glance to see the district 2 girl, Jessica her name is, standing next to him.

She picks up a bow and Dean watches as she skillfully loads the arrow, and in one swift movement, lifts the bow and sends an arrow flying straight into the heart of the dummy standing around 20 yards away.

She does this twice more before setting the bow down and looking up at Dean. She's really pretty, he finds, but for some reason he can't find himself to be attracted to her. She reminds him a bit of Sam.

"Need a little help with that?" She asks, and normally Dean would think a District 2 career would only offer him help as a joke, but her smile seems genuine enough so Dean agrees.

She only gets as far as showing him how to hold the bow, though, before Raphael- the boy from her district- cuts the session short by practically dragging her away.

Dean watches as she casts an apologetic glance over her shoulder at him, and when he turns back to the station he jumps when he sees someone's silently come to stand on the other side of him. "Here. Load it like this." Dean doesn't argue as the guy takes the bow from his hands and loads the arrow onto it, then hands it back to him. "You a good shot?"

Dean shrugs, but he know he's a good shot. Even without knowing how to aim a bow, he lets the arrow fly, and it lands straight in the head of the dummy.

"That's a yes, then," the guy smiles a sly grin and Dean shrugs. "I'm Benny."

"Dean," Dean replies with a nod at Benny. "You're from eight?"

Benny nods, raising an eyebrow at Dean. "And you're from nine. Where's the girl from your district?"

Dean looks around the training room before spotting Jo at the knife throwing place, and he realizes with a sinking feeling that she's standing with the pairs from One and Two.

"Never mind that. If she goes with them they'll kill her within a day," Benny whispers and Dean whips his head around to raise an eyebrow at him.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?"

"Better she die than one of us," Benny shrugs, and Dean crosses his arms at him a bit defensively.

"One of us?"

Benny smirks a bit, mimicking Dean's crossed arms. "I was thinkin' you and I would be a nice pair."

Dean snorts a bit, looking up at the roof awkwardly. "And how should I know you aren't gonna kill me as soon as you get me alone?"

Benny leans a bit closer to Dean and says in a quiet tone, "because the game is easier played with others."

He walks away as soon as the words escape his mouth, and Dean is left standing bewildered at how Benny knew to say that to him. It could have been coincidence, but something told him it wasn't.

He watches Benny leave, standing confused until he snaps himself out of it and walks over to the closest station, which turns out to be berries. The guy heading the station is nice enough, and he helps Dean out with the basics of identifying which berries are good and which are poisonous. After a while of this, though, they're joined by someone else and Dean looks over to see Michael, the boy from 1, standing next to him.

"You're Dean, right?" Michael asks, and Dean nods stiffly, not sure what this guy wants. He knows full well not to trust the careers, especially being a lower district. "The girl from your district is incredible with a spear."

"Hmm," Dean muses awkwardly, looking back down at the screen. Michael does the same on a different one, and they work in awkward silence until Michael speaks up again.

"Look, I don't want you to think we're allies or anything, but that girl could be an asset to us, but if I had to guess I'd say the only way she'd agree to working with us is to have some sort of protection thing on you. So I'll warn you now, avoid Raphael. If there's one person you need to avoid, it's him. I'll do my best to help you in the most subtle ways I can, but there won't be anything I can do if he gets to you first. He's your main issue, then you've got Kali and Naomi. I don't think Gabriel or Jessica have it out for you, or anyone here, really, but just to be safe I'd avoid them, too."

"Jo would never be your ally," Dean mutters, and when Michael opens his mouth to argue, Dean cuts him off. "She wouldn't. She's too smart for that. So why are you telling me this?"

Michael looks as if he's trying to find an excuse, but apparently he can't so he just sighs and shakes his head. "This isn't a game I want to play. But since I have to, I don't want to go out like Raphael is going to. That's not who I am."

Before Dean has a chance to say anything, Michael turns and walks away. Dean groans, turning back to the screen of berries and trying to figure out if Michael was telling the truth.

 

* * *

 

Day two of training is a bit more productive than the first.

The first thing that happens in the morning is Raphael shoving the boy from four, a small guy named Castiel. Everyone immediately stops what they're doing to watch the fight as Castiel tries to get away and Raphael continues agging him on, shouting curse words at him until two peacekeepers pull him away from the shorter boy.

Castiel stands looking bewildered in the middle of the room even after everyone turns away, and Dean approaches him awkwardly. "What happened there?"

Castiel just stands there, looking as though he's about to cry until he looks over at Dean and whispers in a shaky voice, "I really don't want to be here."

He walks away after this, and Dean doesn't chase him. He understands, he doesn't want to be there, either.

As he practices with his knife again, a scrawny boy who's about his height though visibly younger approaches him, fairly confidently, too, for someone who Dean's sure is from 10.

"You Dean?" The guy asks, and Dean raises his eyebrows at him.

"Yeah," Dean answers cautiously, and the guy looks over at the dummies a few yards away.

"You good at throwing them?"

"What?"

"Throwing knives," the guy says, holding his hand out to Dean for the knife he's holding. Dean hands it to him slowly, and the guy grabs it by the tip, stares at the target and tosses the knife at it.

Dean has to admit he didn't expect this tiny kid to be any good at throwing knives, but the knife hits the dummy straight in the head and the guy looks over at him. Dean wants to say he looks smug because he's honestly trying to find any reason he can to hate him, but he doesn't look smug at all. He just looks oddly happy. "That's not a throwing knife. If you pick one of those up in there, you should give it to me."

"Why shouldn't I just kill you with it?" Dean asks, not meaning it as a threat, but the guy doesn't seem to mind either way.

"Benny says he wants you as an ally."

"Is Benny saying that to everyone?" Dean asks a bit defensively, and the guy shrugs.

"No, just the people he likes."

"And who might that be?"

The guy furrows his eyebrows together in thought as he spouts off the list. "You, me, Kevin, Charlie, Samandriel..."

"Who are they? The last three?"

"The boy from eleven and the two from twelve," The guy answers, and Dean raises his eyebrows in surprise.

"And you're from Ten?"

The guy nods. "Names Garth."

"Is Benny just rallying everyone from the lower districts who he thinks can't fight for theselves? Is he planning to use us as bait or something?"

Garth shrugs, looking a bit thoughtful. "Maybe. I don't think so. But, hey, if you make up your mind, you should let us know."

And with that, he turns and walks away. Dean notices that the people here have a habit of walking away from him to end the conversation, and for some reason that bugs him a bit. He shrugs it off, though, and grabs another knife off the cart. He holds it by the tip, then takes aim and throws it at the dummy.

It misses by three feet.

 

* * *

 

Dean sits at the huge table, Bobby next to him and Jo across. They're all silent until Rufus enters with Pamela and Jo's stylist, a short guy named Chuck Shurley. The three of them sit at the table, Pamela being the loudest to do so. "So, you two," Rufus says, and Dean and Jo look over at him simultaniously. "Who are your picks for allys?"

Everyone looks as Jo first, which is a bit of a relief to Dean. "Well, the girl from Four, Anna. And the pair from Six, Gordon and Bela."

Rufus nods approvingly, but Dean wants to puke. He doesn't mind Anna from what he's seen of the red-haired girl, but Gordon and Bela are two people he really doesn't want to associate with. "Dean, what about you?"

Dean swallows nervously as he looks around the table. "Um, the guy from Eight. Benny. Samandriel from Eleven, Garth from Ten, and the two from Twelve, Kevin and Charlie." With every name he says, Jo looks more and more pissed. She only snaps when Dean says the last name on his list. "And the guy from Four, Castiel."

"Are you serious?" Jo scoffs, jumping to her feet and slamming her hands down on the table. "Do you plan on dying here?"

"Garth's pretty good with throwing knives-" Dean starts defensively, but Jo doesn't seem like she cares.

"So what? You want Eleven and Twelve? And Castiel? Raphael is going to rip his head off his shoulders in the first four minutes, Dean! None of them are going to do a thing for us!"

"You say us as if I want to work with you," Dean laughs, and Jo just stares at him incredulously until she turns and storms off down the hall.

"She's got a point," Bobby says quietly.

"I don't care," Dean mutters. "I want them."

And with that, he gets to his feet and follows Jo down the hall.

 

* * *

 

The last day of training isn't much. Garth hangs around him a lot, and though Dean finds him incredibly annoying, he can't deny that the kid's optimism makes him feel a bit better. At least one person is happy in the hell-hole.

The entire day goes by in a blur, and the next thing he knows, it's the day of the training scores.

He seems to sit in the waiting room forever until they finally call him in.

He has no clue what he's going to do, so he just shoots some arrows surprisingly well, shows off his knife skills and lets the gamemakers dismiss him.

"How'd it go?" Bobby asks as Dean walks into the main room, and Dean just shrugs.

"Alright."

"What'd you do?"

"Not much."

Bobby sighs, shaking his head. "How the hell do you expect me to get you sponsors if you can't even be bothered to try and get a good training score?"

Dean snaps at this. He whips around to glare at Bobby, finding himself letting out all the rage he's been building up over the last few days. "I'm gonna die in there, why does it matter what my damn training score is?!"

"Well, you're certainly not going to win with that attitude. You volunteered for this, boy."

"I volunteered so that I could die instead of my brother. I realized a while ago that thinking I have a chance at winning these games is stupid, because I don't."

Bobby just stares at him in silence until Dean rolls his eyes and storms off to his room, only coming out when Pamela tells him it's time for the scores to be revealed.

He sits on the very edge next to Pamela, Chuck next to her and Jo next to him. Rufus and Bobby take their own seats and they all fall silent as Caeser Flickerman appears on the screen, his bright yellow hair matching his yellow suit which makes Dean want to puke.

He talks about random stuff Dean doesn't care about, and he tunes out the TV until they finally start revealing the scores.

"From District One, Michael Arch, with a score of eleven. Naomi Richards, with a ten. From District Two, Raphael James, scoring a ten, and from District Two, Jessica Moore, also scoring a ten. District Three, Gabriel Martin, with a score of seven, and Kali Pagan, with a score of nine. District Four, Castiel Novak with a score of... Four."

Dean tries to ignore the smug look Jo sends him after Castiel's score is revealed, but really, Dean's surprised he scored so high after doing what Dean figures was just sitting in the middle of the room crying.

"And from District Four, Anna Milton, with a score of seven. District Five, Adam Milligan, with a score of 7, and Ruby Knox, scoring a ten. From District six, Gordon Walker with a seven, and Bela Talbot pulling a nine. District seven, Andrew Gallagher, with a score of six. Also from District seven, Ava Wilson, also scoring a six. From District Eight, Benny Lafitte, with a score of nine, and Meg Masters who scored an eight. From District Nine, Dean Winchester, with a score of... Nine."

Dean almost jumps out of his seat. He was far from expecting a nine. That was more than he could have hoped for, especially considering all he did was shoot arrows and stab things.

"And from District Nine, Joanna Beth Harvelle, with a score of ten."

This is enough to put a damper in Dean's mood, especially because she acts rather smug about it, but Dean ignores her. He got a nine, for God's sake.

"From District Ten, Garth Fitzgerald the Fourth, with a score of six."

Dean sighs at this, thinking that Garth must not have shown them his knife-throwing abilties. He'd thrown more knives with Dean on the last training day, and Dean had to take note that he hit the target dead-on every time, even when the targets moved. His strategy must have been to get a lower score so that he wasn't targeted, which Dean had to admit was a pretty good plan.

"And Becky Rosen, with a score of five. From District Eleven, Samandriel Alfie, who scored a seven, and Hael Canyon, with an eight. And finally, from District Twelve, Kevin Tran, with a score of five, and Charlie Bradbury, with a score of seven."

Caeser talks a bit more, and even after the screen fades to black, the group of them sit in silence until Jo speaks up finally. "I approve of Benny."

Dean glares at her, and she glares back, but neither of them say anything else.

 

* * *

 

The morning of the interviews goes slowly. Pamela dresses him in a black tuxedo, with a bowtie instead of a regular tie, and as Dean looks in the mirror he has to admit she did a good job making him look decent.

The rest of the day flashes by until Dean finds himself standing next to Jo in the lineup under the interview stage.

Naomi's interview goes well in her favour. She's scary and cunning but she does so in a nicely creepy sort of way.

Michael, Dean finds, really knows how to work an audience. He tells Caeser his heartwarming story of how he volunteered in the place of his brother, which basically fucks Dean over because he had his entire interview residing on how he'd volunteered for Sam.

Jessica is sweet and kind and caring and absolutely nothing like a career, and Dean wonders if it's wishful thinking to think that she wants him as an ally as much as he wants her.

Raphael just scares him. A lot.

Kali mostly talks about winning, and Dean thinks he might call her princess because that's what she seems to be, and she avoids talking about Gabriel at all costs which is a bit of a contradiction seeing as though Gabriel says that he volunteered to come here to keep her safe because he's had a crush on her forever. The audience eats up it and Dean wants to puke.

Anna from 4 seems a bit crazy, but kinda hot.

Castiel. Castiel from 4, who Dean decides to call Cas since Castiel is a bit of a mouthful, is shy and awkward and doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that everyone thinks he's going to be the first to die. Dean still wants him as an ally despite this, and he still doesn't know why.

Ruby seems ready to fight and Dean thinks she's a total bitch. There's something about her he doesn't trust and he decides he wants to kill her first just to keep that from fucking him over.

Adam seems a bit odd, and Dean thinks his seven is a perfect score for his personality because he seems like a total douche, too.

That doesn't stop Dean from adding him to his list of allies.

Bela Talbot seems sly and cunning and just a small bit despicably evil, and Dean thinks if there's one person aside from the group of careers that has the potential to win the game, it's Bela.

Gordon Walker is a total dick, and that's all Dean picks up.

Ava looks scared and Dean almost feels a bit bad for her, until her realizes that he's about 90% sure it's a scam. Dean puts her second on his hit list.

Andrew- or Andy, he tells Caeser to call him- is a bit weird and nervous and Dean decides he wants him, too.

Meg is someone Dean thinks could win, too, and he mentally adds him to the side list of potential allies, not on the direct list but could be there if need be.

Benny has a weird accent. Dean hadn't found it weird when he'd spoken to him, but he thinks it's weird now. And for some reason, despite the fact that there's something about him that Dean thinks he shouldn't trust, Dean decides to trust him anyway.

Jo's interview goes fairly well in her favour. She's charming and cute and not anything like Dean knows her to be, and if he hadn't already known her to be a bitch, he may have added her to the ally list.

And then it's time for Dean's interview. He walks up to the stage awkwardly and stiffly once his name is called, and Caeser gestures to the seat next to him for Dean to sit.

"So, Dean Winchester, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?"

Dean looks out at the audience, suddenly feeling a surge of stage fright. It takes a moment for him to compose himself, but he eventually does it and spits out a sentence. "Well, I'm from District Nine, I like to work out in the fields, and I live alone with my brother."

"Your brother, you volunteered for him?"

"Yes," Dean chokes a bit, knowing full well that Sam is watching at home, hopefully with Madison.

"That was brave of you," Caeser comments, and Dean shrugs.

"He's all I've got. We're all each other has."

"How so?"

Dean looks over at Caeser, trying to compose himself. He's not about to cry in front of everyone in the country. "Well, our mom died in a house fire when Sam was just six months old. And our dad died just last year, so... I couldn't let him walk in here and die."

"That's very touching," Caeser says, with a bit of sincerity that almost comforts Dean for a moment.

"Thank you," Dean whispers, looking down at his lap as everyone in the audience sighs over the poor Winchester boy who's lost his whole family.

"So, Dean, let's talk about your training score, shall we?" Caeser says, and Dean nods. "A nine. Were you expecting to score that high?"

"Honestly, no. But at least now I won't be underestimated," he tries to smile warmly at Caeser, and the man reflects it back.

"You don't look like the kind of person to be underestimated," Caeser says, putting a hand on Dean's knee just as the buzzer goes off.

Dean rushes off the stage to the sound of the applause in the audience, which he realizes with a feeling of joy is louder than Jo's applause. He sits in his seat next to her and watches the rest of the interviews, making mental notes like he had before.

Becky is weird. She's off-beat and eccentric and just strange, and Dean almost feels bad for her because he's sure she's going to die in the bloodbath.

Garth is even weirder on stage than he is in private, which is something Dean didn't think was possible. He's really unorthodox, in the sense that he doesn't seem like he wants to kill anyone at all. That'd be the kind of trait that could cause him to rebel against the games, but Dean knows he's smarter than that. He wouldn't risk being killed by someone who doesn't agree with his standpoint, and Dean realizes that Garth is the second person on his ally list, taking a backseat to only Cas.

Hael from Eleven is a bit shy and nervous, but she's also got a bit of a bitchy quality to her and Dean avoids adding her to the ally list.

Samandriel, which is also a mouthful, tells people to call him Alfie- which is a complete relief because he didn't want to have to call him Sam. As he watches the boy's interview, Dean thinks that he's far from the person that should be in these games. He wouldn't be surprised if the boy killed himself to get out of it. Dean adds him to the ally list.

Charlie Bradbury seems like the kind of girl who stands apart from everyone else. In her elegant pink ball gown, she looks beautiful but she also trips on it which gets laughs from the audience. She laughs with them. She seems intellegent despite her slight shyness, and Dean slides her in under Garth on his list.

Kevin Tran, the youngest in the games at only fourteen, is shy and quiet and looks like he's going to break down standing on the stage. Dean feels an odd sense of the need to protect him, and instead of putting him on the ally list, puts him on the protect at all costs list.

 

* * *

 

The morning of the games goes by faster than any of the other days in the capitol.

The tributes are all loaded onto a plane, where they're flown to the arena. While on the plane, Capitol nurses inject trackers into their arms which hurts less than Dean expected it to.

They're then brought into a series of rooms and separated into one each. Pamela joins Dean in his room, and a voice over a speaker gives them the five minute warning.

"Dean," she whispers, walking towards him and flipping his collar up. "Find water. Avoid the cornucopia. It's a bloodbath, you don't want to get that close to the other tributes. You turn and you run, and if you think you're safe enough, you find Jo."

"I don't-"

"I don't care if you don't want her as your ally. She's the only person I can garuntee you can trust. If you can find her, work with her."

Dean sighs as the voice says four minutes.

"That Benny guy. Work with him. Work with Benny, and work with Jo. You three can do this."

"What about Garth? And Alfie, and the two from twelve? I've got a whole list of them, Pamela. Adam, Andy, Becky-"

"Garth, no. He got a six. You don't want someone who got a six. Dean, I know this isn't what you want to do, but trust me. I'm giving you life or death advice, please listen to me. Benny and Jo. And Meg Masters, maybe. If you want to risk trusting her, I wont argue."

Dean looks down at the ground. Three minutes.

"I want Castiel."

Pamela sighs, and when Dean looks up he sees her shaking her head. "He got the lowest score."

"I don't care. He's the one I want most. I trust him."

"He could get you killed. These games are every man for themselves. What happens if you carry him to the end and it's just the two of you? What then? Are you gonna kill him?"

Dean stays silent because he realizes he has no answer. He wonders if he could. He didn't come to the games thinking that he isn't going to kill anyone, because that'd be stupid. But who knows if he could kill Castiel?

Two minutes.

"Find water. Turn and run and find water. Forget about allies, they're only a maybe. If you can't find them, don't go out of your way to get them. Don't sacrifice yourself for them. Remember that them dying is one step closer to you living."

Dean nods, trying his best to keep all her words in his mind. Pamela's been doing this for years, she knows what she's doing. And as much as Dean wants to ignore her and find Castiel and Garth and Benny and Kevin and Charlie and Alfie and everyone else on his list, he knows that she's got a point. "Alright."

"And try not to die."

One minute.

Pamela leads dean to the tube where they just stand in silence as the vocie counts down from sixty. Once it reaches twenty, he feels his heart rate start to speed up, and Pamela gives him a weak smile. As quick as he can, he reaches out and hugs her, pulling away only when the voice says ten seconds. As soon as he stands up straight, they're cut off by a clear wall and Dean is lifted off the ground.

He keeps his eyes locked with Pamela's until her face is gone and his vision is blurred by the light as he looks around the arena.

This is it.


	2. chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i lied, this story will be uploaded in three parts. it was going to be uploaded in two, but then this chapter got to 14k words (i think) so i decided to just post it and then post the last one. so yeah. please don't kill me after this.

It takes a moment for Dean's eyes to adjust.

He rubs his eyes, blinking a few times to get used to the change from the dim artificial light of the underground room to the bright light in the arena. Once he does, though, he's able to take in the place.

If he weren't going to his death, he might have found it beautiful. Long expanses of woodlands leading to a cliffy rockface, and as Dean strains his ears he can hear a waterfall a little way's away, and the sky is a beautiful bright blue.

He looks to his right to see Meg, who's also looking around with what Dean thinks is a smile. Morbid.

To his left is Garth. This is a releif because he has at least one ally close to him. Garth looks over at him, too, and nods stiffly.

Dean lets his eyes trail around the circle. Next to Garth is Andy, then Hael, Anna, Kevin, Ava and Gordon. Dean can't see the tributes on the other side, the cornucopia is in the way, but on the other side, closest to the cornucopia from Dean's view is Michael, Gabriel, Bela, Becky, Samandriel, Charlie, Kali, Raphael and Ruby. Which means that Benny, Jo, Castiel, Naomi and Adam are all on the other side of the cornucopia.

Dean was hoping Castiel would end up close to him so he could grab him and a few weapons and get out, but seeing as though he's probably completely opposite Dean, and the cornucopia is bloody huge, there's very little chance Dean can get to him with0ut finding trouble.

He casts another glance to his left, relooking at everyone on that side. Garth, Andy, Hael, Anna, Kevin, Ava and Gordon. None of them are paticularily his enemies aside from Gordon, in fact, he'd like to call himself allies with Andy and Kevin. Of course Garth isn't going to kill him. At least, Dean hopes he isn't.

That leaves Anna, Hael and Gordon.

Dean doesn't see Hael as much of an obstacle. She's quite small, and being from District 11, he doesn't see her as much of a threat. She's only fifteen years old, and she scored an eight in training, which Dean doesn't think he should underestimate seeing as though Garth scored a six, but he finds himself doing it anyway. If he had to bet, he'd say she's going to get taken out in the bloodbath.

Dean finally tunes back into the world around him when he hears the loud voice say thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight. He finally realizes then that this is happening. He's not just plotting anymore, this is the Hunger Games.

Gordon is a threat. Dean needs to take him out if he's to get to Castiel. And Jo wants Anna as an ally, and Dean and Jo are apparently a package deal or something, so Anna shouldn't try to kill him, either. But who knows? The bloodbath is crazy. It wouldn't be hard for her to send a spear through his chest and say someone else did it.

And then the alarm rings.

Dean lurches off his platform, bolting stright for the cornucopia despite Bobby's direct orders to turn and run. He wonders if Jo turned and ran.

Probably not.

As he gets closer to the massive metal contraption, he picks up anything he can grab without slowing him down. By the time he makes it inside, he's got two backpacks and a small sack which he's not sure the contents.

He looks around, seeming to be the first person to get there. He picks up a bow and two packs of arrows, and by the time he does this he's got company.

He loads the bow and sends it flying at the closest person, Naomi, but it misses her by a hair.

He sends a few more arrows flying, a small surge of relief filling him when he sees it fly straight into Gordon Walker's head. He's running as soon as he lets it go, though, crashing into someone and landing on his ass and thinking that it's for sure the end for him. Instead, though, the person grabs his arm and hauls him to his feet and he makes out the face of Michael. He's still expecting to be killed. But Michael just whispers, "run," and runs past him, leaving him in a small bit of shock. He shakes it off, though, and continues running. He sees the retreating body of Castiel and takes off after him, thanking God that the guy made it out alive.

He follows him for a few minutes until he's sure he's far enough away from the rest of the tributes to yell at him. "Castiel!"

The guy stops dead and turns slowly, the panic in his eyes completely giving away the fact that he thinks he's going to be killed. Dean approaches him slowly like he would a deer in the woods, making sure not to spook him, until he's close enough to have a conversation in a reasonable tone. "You're going to kill me. Just do it fast," Castiel says, and Dean laughs a bit.

"Nah. Are you gonna kill me?"

Castiel shakes his head stiffly, holding his arms out and looking down at himself. He didn't go to the cornucopia. He turned and ran. He hasn't got a thing,

"Here," Dean says, holding out a dark green backpack to the shorter boy. Castiel looks at it with wide eyes as if he can't believe it's really being offered to him, and he takes it from Dean extremely slow and cautiously. Dean laughs at this. "Alright, then. Are you looking for anyone specifically?"

Castiel shakes his head no, looking down at the ground almost shamefully. "I didn't come in here thinking I had any allies."

Dean feels a bit awkward at this, but he clears his throat and shakes his head and pushes it away. "Well, you've got one. Lots more, if we can find them. Come on."

Dean and Castiel walk for a while, two or three hours Dean thinks, until he's sure they're safe. He finds a crevice in the rocks that's just big enough for the two of them to fit in with a reasonable amount of space left, and they both climb in to check out what they got in the packs.

Castiel's contains a sleeping bag, a water container and a few bags of parishable foods. He also gets a bundle of throwing knives, and when Dean asks for them Castiel raises an eyebrow questioningly. "Need to keep those handy," Dean explains, and Castiel hands them to him curiously, but without a word. Dean's pack has a box of matches, a pair of mittens and a hat, extra socks and a water container. Along with that he's got the bow and arrows, and a knife, which he steals quickly without a word, and a block used for sharpening knives.

After they shove everything back in the bags, Dean picks up the small bag and narrows his eyes at it.

"If you want to know what's in there so bad, why don't you just open it?" Castiel asks, and Dean looks up at him with raised eyebrows and a smirk on his face.

"Because, Cas, that ruins the mystery."

He stares at it for another minute or so until he finally gets fed up and opens it. The entire bag, which is about the size of his shoe, is filled to the top with matches. Dean can't help but feel slightly let down. "We already have a pack of matches," he comments dully.

"These may come in handy," Castiel says, holding his hand out for the bag. Dean hands it to him, watching him curiously as he stares down into it. "We could use them to light distraction fires. If the careers come after us, we can light a fire somewhere and camp somewhere far away from it. We've got no limit to that, apparently."

Dean laughs. Castiel looks up as Dean laughs to himself while he shakes his head. "What is it?"

"I underestimated you," Dean says, and Castiel gives him a look but doesn't say anything else.

They both immediately shut up when they hear rustling outside the crevice, and Dean risks moving a bit to see who's outside.

He isn't sure what to do when he sees Jo. She's with Anna and Bela and Adam, and even though Dean initially wanted Adam as an ally and is supposed to be allying himself with Jo, he doesn't show himself. He waits until they're far gone to risk breathing loudly, and Castiel looks at him confusedly. "Isn't she your ally?"

"Against my will," Dean mutters. He ignores the look Castiel gives him and he takes to tossing the packs and the bow and arrows outside, then following after them. Castiel comes out after him and they both get to their feet, Castiel grabbing the lighter green pack along with the bag of matches, and Dean grabbing the heavier brown one and the knife.

They walk for a bit longer, just exploring and looking for water to make their campsite next to. Dean's hoping to run into Benny or Garth or Kevin and Charlie, though he can't force down the feeling that one or all of them died in the bloodbath.

His thought is cut off my the canons coincidentally going off right then.

_boom_

_boom_

_boom_

_boom_

"Four," Cas whispers. "Four people dead. Only four people."

"That could be a good thing," Dean says, and Castiel shrugs. "That means less of our allies dead."

"And more of our enemies alive."

"True, but how many of them are there? six? There's about ten of us, I think that outnumbers them."

"Seven," Cas says, and Dean opens his mouth to ask what he means but Cas cuts him off. "Seven of them. One, Two, Three, and Ruby from five. They've got her, too. And they're also all together. Where are our allies, Dean?"

Dean makes a hmph sound, crossing his arms a bit childishly. "You're a negative one, aren't you? We'll find them. Don't worry."

"And what if we don't? What if the days go by and all their pictures show up in the sky and we have to keep playing knowing that the last time we saw them was the very beginning? That the last time we talked to them was on the airplane?"

Dean thinks about this for a moment, but he shakes his head. "That's not going to happen. We're going to find them if it kills me."

* * *

 

It didn't take long.

In fact, it took what Dean figures is an hour or so before they run into Benny, Meg and Samandriel.  
  
It's Castiel who finds them.

The short guy carelessley tears through branches, not really looking out for danger. He's lucky Meg hadn't speared him when he scared her. She'd tried, actually, but Benny stopped her. He'd refused to kill Cas because he knew Dean wanted him.

And when Dean steps out from behind the tree, Benny grins.

"Well, if it ain't the devil himself."

"Told you we'd find them," Dean says in a hushed tone to Castiel while nudging him in the side. "Nice to see you guys."

"Nice to see yourself," Meg says with a bit of a sneer on her face, as her eyes pass between Dean and Castiel. "Dean Winchester. And... You're Clarence, right?"

Castiel shakes his head quickly, and a bit awkwardly. "No. Castiel."

Meg narrows her eyes at him and shakes her head. "Nah. I like Clarence better. Has a nice ring to it."

Cas looks as if he's about to say something, to argue or comment, but Benny cuts him off. "You guys passed Garth and the Twelves?"

Dean shakes his head. "I was hoping you'd found them."

"Nope. Well, what do you say we all find a place to camp for the night, then?"

 

* * *

 

They find a place next to a small pool of water on an elevated piece of rock with a decent amount of shrubs around it to cover them.

Meg also has a pack from the cornucopia, though hers is orange and Dean makes a mental note to do something about the vibrant color. She has a second sleeping bag in hers, a few more bags of snacks and another knife. It's shorter and looks duller than Dean's, and he can clearly tell she got hers from farther away from the cornucopia than Dean did.

Samandriel managed a spear- the one Meg had almost killed Castiel with- and a carrying pouch. Benny grabbed a zipup container containing a fold-up stove stand and a baking pan. He must have had a hell of a time getting that.

All in all, though, between the five of them, they're pretty well-off. It could have been a lot worse.

They all sit in silence until the anthem plays, and they all look up to the sky to see the faces of the fallen tributes.

"Four dead," Benny mutters.

It skips straight to District six, meaning everyone from one to five is still alive. Every career made it out alive.

Gordon Walker is the first face to appear on the screen. Dean realizes with a sinking feeling that he was the one who killed him. He feels even worse when he realizes that he had completely forgotten that he'd killed him.

Next is the girl from seven, Ava Wilson. The one Dean didn't trust. He wonders if she went out fighting.

The guy from seven appears, too. Andrew Gallagher. Dean had liked him. He was a bit odd, sure, but he was nice enough. He was one of the people Dean had been keeping an eye out for in case he ran into him and could add him as an ally.

The last face is Hael Canyon, Samandriel's district partner. He wonders if they were close, or if they got along as badly as him and Jo.

The night fades to black again, and the five of them sit in silence, all willing someone else to break it. Meg is the first to do so. "Well, four down, twenty to go."

 

* * *

 

Dean volunteers to take the first watch.

The main reason he does this is because he doesn't trust Meg as far as he can throw her, but it's also because he seems to be the most well-rested out of all of them. Benny looks pretty good, too, but Dean tells him to sleep anyway. Samandriel is the fist one asleep, which isn't surprising seeing as though he looked like he was going to fall asleep where he sat.

As soon as everyone falls asleep, Dean takes out his knife and sharpening block and runs the blade across the surface. The fire looks a bit dead, so Dean picks up a stick and uses it to push the logs around in the firepit.

It's pretty boring, being the only one awake in the middle of a forest with no entertainment whatsoever. By the time he figures his three hours is up and he wakes Benny to take his shift, he feels like he's going to go crazy.

He falls asleep between Samandriel and Cas, and when he wakes up again, it's daytime.

He's the first one awake, apparently, and when he sits up to look around, he notices that Benny is nowhere to be seen.

"Benny," Dean hisses, looking around the campsite urgently. "Benny!"

"Keep it down, Dean, you'll scare away every creature in the forest," the familiar accent says as Benny pulls two branches apart and walks over to Dean. He heaves a throw and in front of Dean lands two rabbits and a marten.

"How'd you get these?" Dean asks, a smile pulling at the corners of his lips as he reaches out to grab one of the rabbits.

Benny holds out Meg's spear in answer. "Got any ideas of how to cook 'em?"

By the time Meg and Cas wake up, Dean and Benny have already roasted all three animals over the fire, and distributed them equally among the five of them.

"Someone wanna wake up sleeping beauty over there?" Dean asks, nodding in the direction of Samandriel, who's curled up in a ball under a tree.

Meg pulls herself to her feet and walks over to him, and nobody pays any mind to her shaking his shoulder until she says, "guys, he's not breathing."

The three of them automatically rush over to Samandriel. His eyes are sqeezed shut and his face is pale, almost blue, and as Dean holds his hand in front of the kid's nose to see if there's any air coming out, he almost passes out when he feels a small huff of air hit his hand. "He's breathing. He's alive, but barely."

"Bring him here," Cas says, and Dean looks at him confusedly to which he rolls his eyes. "Just trust me."

Cas clears a spot next to the fire, and when Dean and Benny set Samandriel down, Cas puts a sleeping bag over the boy's frail frame and tucks it under him. "He's got hypothermia. Severely, by the looks of him. Try and get him awake."

Despite being shocked by Castiel's apparent vast medical knowledge, Dean does what he's told and tries to wake up Samandriel. It takes a while, but eventually he stirs a bit and cracks his eyes open. "Wh-"

"Shh, it's okay," Cas whispers, running his hand along Samandriel's back. "How cold were you last night?"

"He didn't have a sleeping bag," Benny says. "I offered him one, but he didn't take it. You were next to the fire, and those two shared the other one. He must have froze. He's smaller than the rest of us."

Cas helps Samandriel to sit up, and Dean watches with pity as the boy looks to be struggling immensely with the action. "What did you say it was, Cas?"

"Severe hypothermia," Cas says, not taking his attention off Samandriel.

"What does that mean?"

"The worst it can get," Cas whispers, narrowing his eyes at the young boy in front of him. "Death would be next."

"Can you help him?"

"It won't be easy."

"So why don't we just kill him?"

All three of them turn their heads to look at Meg, standing above Samandriel with a spear in her hand.

"We're not killing him," Dean growls at her.

"Why not? He's not going to be anything more than a hinderance."

"Meg, we're-"

"P-please..."

They all stop arguing when Samandriel's small, shaky voice speaks up. He's got the sleeping bag wrapped around his shoulders and he's looking up at them with dull eyes. "Please," he repeats in a whisper.

"Please what?" Dean asks, though he knows exactly what the please is for.

Samandriel starts making a few incomprehensible sounds, and Dean panics a bit thinking he's having a breakdown or something, and he looks to Cas for help but the boy doesn't look concerned. "Is he alright in the head, Cas?"

"Hmm? Yeah, he's mostly fine, I think. That happens to hypothermics. Messed up speech patterns, difficulty moving muscles, sluggish thinking, sometimes amnesia, paradoxical undressing..."

"Paradoxal what?"

"Paradoxical undressing."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Dean's question is answered as Samandriel slowly, awkwardly tosses the sleeping bag off his shoulders and attempts to undo his jacket. He gets about halfway there when Cas grabs his wrists and pulls them away, and Benny puts the sleeping bag back on him. "You're not hot. I promise you're not hot, you just think you are. You're freezing, Samandriel."

"Come on, Alfie, pull it together," Dean whispers, and Cas looks up at him with sad eyes.

"Dean, can I talk to you for a minute?" Dean agrees a bit cautiously, allowing Cas to bring him to a more secluded area so they can talk. "He won't make it."

"We can help him, Cas. I don't know how you know all this stuff about diseases and stuff, but you can help him. Can't you?"

"That's the thing, Dean. I think he might be too far gone. I think Meg-"

"Meg isn't right. We're not killing him."

"Dean. Listen to me. He is suffering. If we don't do this, he'll continue to slip away until he dies slowly and painfully."

"We can help him."

"And then what? We carry him to the end and kill ourselves off to let him win?"

Dean stops and thinks at this. He wasn't really thinking about the games, he was thinking about saving a human's life. But Cas has a point. They can't carry Samandriel all the way to the end, especially not in a state that requires serious medical attention. The kid's from eleven, he'd be lucky if the sponsors got him a drop of water. "I just can't, Cas. I can't do it."

"You won't have to. I've put people down before," Cas says, shaking his head. "Sometimes a bit unorthodoxly. He won't feel anything, though. I promise."

"You're certain he won't feel it?" Dean asks, though his mind is screaming at him not to go along with this, to save Samandriel and keep him safe in the games. He's just a kid.

"Well, I mean, it'll be quick. I think he's too far gone to feel it, anyway. His body's probably gone numb."

Dean sighs, and it's a long moment before he nods his head. Cas turns and walks back to the camp without a word, and Dean follows. They wordlessley pack up all the stuff, Benny and Meg helping once they see what the other two are doing. Once everything's packed up, Dean guestures for Benny and Meg to follow him, and he gives them a look once they look like they're about to argue. But then they understand.

They leave Castiel alone with Samandriel and a knife.

Dean flinches when he hears the canon boom.

 

* * *

 

After they'd found a new campsite- though they had only dropped their bags instead of fully setting it up yet, just in case they can't find anything around-, all four of them remaining awkwardly silent, Benny and Meg went out hunting while Dean and Cas went to find water.

After they'd found a stream and filled up both water bottles, and as they're on their way back to the campsite, Dean feels his heart drop when he hears a canon boom.

He picks up a run, Cas following behind him as they break through the treeline and into the campsite. Benny and Meg are nowhere to be seen.

"You don't think Meg killed Benny, do you?" Cas whispers the fear running through Dean's head out loud, which makes his heart rate increase even more.

Unless-

"Dean," Benny says as he comes into view and Dean lets out a breath of air, turning to Cas.

"Unless neither one died."

"Find any water?" Meg asks, and Cas shakes his head, looking back to Benny.

The guy's got a long silver blade, covered in red blood in his hand. "Is that what I think it is?" Cas breathes, holding a hand out for it. Benny hands it to him with a raised eyebrow as Cas studies the blade.

"What is it?"

"It's a mercy blade," Cas whispers, grabbing a leaf off a tree and using it to wipe off the blood from the blade. "Or, as you probably know it, an angel blade."

Dean's heard of angel blades. They're a capitol contraption, designed to kill a victim mercifully, a quick death without any pain.

"Angel blade?" Benny asks, taking it back from an unwilling Cas. "I've heard of them. No pain kill. Should've had this a few hours ago."

Dean tries to ignore that comment. He takes the blade from Benny and, despite everyone watching him, runs it across his arm. Blood oozes out of the cut, but Dean doesn't feel anything at all. "Well, I'll be damned."

"Where did you get this?" Cas asks, pulling it out of Dean's hands and holding it protectively close to his body.

"The girl from six, Bela Talbot. We ran into her in the woods, she attacked me, Meg speared her, and she had this on her. We thought it was just a weird sword thing."

"Well, it's not," Cas whispers, staring intently down at the blade. "My family, we're some of the healers of our district. We've needed one of these for so long, but we could never afford it. People don't typically approve of our unorthodox methods of putting people down. We'd get so much more buisness if we could afford one of these..."

His voice trails off, and he stares at the blade in fascination for a moment longer before he clears his throat and hands it back to Benny, who shakes his head. "You keep it. It's yours."

Castiel's eyes widen in disbelief. Dean has to laugh because it's almost cute, his childlike excitement. "W-wow. Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Benny says, clasping Cas over the shoulder with his hand. "So, Dean, doesn't look like anything's here. I say we keep moving. Where to next?"

Dean raises an eyebrow at the question, which is seemingly putting him in charge. He looks over at Cas, then at Meg, and all three of them are giving him the same expression, waiting for instuctions. "Um... I don't know. We could keep moving away from the cornucopia, which is where the careers are, right?" Dean asks, and Benny nods. "But if we do that, there's a pretty big guaruntee that they'll move us back. Forest fire, flood, something like that. So if you guys want to risk being burned or drowned or anything else, we keep moving that way."

"No thank you," Meg says, shifting her grip on her spear. "Aren't we supposed to be finding Garth and the twelves?"

"That, too. We could go find them," Dean suggests, and Meg nods.

"I say we do that. Any ideas as to how big the arena is?" Meg asks, and Dean shrugs.

"Well, me and Cas walked for a few hours before we found you guys. We've been continuing in that same direction, so we're pretty far away. I'm surprised they haven't turned us around yet."

Meg nods again, picking up Cas' pack and throwing it over her shoulder. "Alright, then. Over the river and through the woods, to the cornucopia we go."

She walks off through the woods and Benny follows her, but Cas stays where he's standing. "Was that a reference?" He asks, turning his head to look at Dean, who shrugs. "Hmm. I didn't get it."

Cas shoves his angel blade through the loop on the side of his pants, grabs the green pack and walks after Meg, who's got her spear, and Benny, who'd grabbed Meg's orange pack. Dean stands there for a moment longer before grabbing the last pack and his bow and arrows and following them.

 

* * *

 

They walk for a long time, well into the night, when Meg stops them. She nods in the direction of the fire sitting a little ways away, and fixes her grip on the spear, then begins creeping towards the other campsite. It's obviously not the careers, they'd have a lot more supplies than these people have. So as Dean goes through his list of surviving tributes, he figures it's either Jo and Anna, Garth and the twelves (but who knows if the three of them are even together), Adam Milligan or Becky Rosen.

Dean pulls his knife out of his jacket pocket, and Cas slides his angel blade out of the loop in his pants. Benny's got Dean's bow and arrows, and together the four of them make their way over to the site.

Dean only plans on checking it out, but he knows that if it's anyone other than Garth and the Twelves, Meg and Benny will probably kill them. Even if it's Jo, who Dean isn't sure he would save if it is.

As they get closer, without even sensing the movement, Meg jumps when a sound comes from the tree next to her, and she looks terrified as she pulls the knife out of the trunk.

She looks like she's about to run, but stops when Dean lets out a laugh. He takes the knife from her hand and looks down at it, shaking his head, then tosses it back to the campsite, which earns a laugh in return.

Dean picks up a run towards the site, where he sees the smiling face holding the knife in his hands. "Dean!"

"Hey, Garth," Dean laughs, and Garth smiles even bigger as Meg, Benny and Cas come into view behind him.

"I didn't think I was ever going to find you," Garth says, and Dean's a bit caught off-guard when Garth pulls him into a tight hug. "I thought I was gonna be alone this whole time!"

"Alone?" Dean asks.

"Well, not alone alone. I've got Kevin."

Dean feels a surge of relief at hearing this. He's glad Kevin's with Garth and not wandering around alone waiting for someone to come and kill him. Being the youngest in the arena, he'd be pretty easy prey. "Where is he?"

"Sleeping. Kid's a wreck, I think he might be going a little loopy. He was on watch all last night, I've got the day shift."

"No Charlie?" Dean asks, and Garth shakes his head.

"I thought she was with you."

"That's what we thought, too," Benny says, taking a step to stand beside Dean. "Nice to see you breathing, Garth."

"Yeah, you too," Garth smiles at him. "You guys wanna sit?"

Garth walks into his campsite, which has a tarp tied like a tent on two trees and a small fire near the mouth of it, and logs all around the fire like benches. "You made an actual campsite?" Dean asks, and Garth shrugs.

"Why not?"

"Maybe because you're in a game which you have to fight to the death, and this is not the kind of thing you can pack up in a moments notice and run," Meg says, kicking a log that's sticking out of the fire.

"I've been here since early yesterday and I haven't been bothered," Garth shrugs again. "You guys are the first people I've seen so far other than Kevin." There's a bit of an awkward pause before Garth speaks up again. "Two cannons. Who do you guys think?"

"The girl from Six, Bela Talbot," Benny says, and Garth gives him a look which fades immideately.

"Who else?"

"Um... Alfie," Dean says with a gulp and Garth's eyes fall to the ground.

"Oh."

"Samandriel had hypothermia, he was dying. There was nothing we could do," Cas says, taking a step towards Garth and putting a hand on his shoulder. "And Bela attacked Benny. Meg killed her, we had no choice."

"So you guys are responsible for all the death's today?" Garth asks, looking up at them all again, and Dean looks down guiltily.

"This isn't a guilt trip, Garth," Meg snaps, making the smaller boy flinch. "This is the damn Hunger Games. People are going to die."

"I never said it was-"

"Oh, don't pull that with me, Fitzgerald. This is not the place to make people feel bad for killing other people!"

Garth takes a step backwards, tripping over one of the log benches and landing on his back. He lets out a yelp as he falls and an oof when he hits the ground, and Meg towers over him with her spear in her hand, and for a moment Dean almost fears for Garth's life.

"May as well kill him, too," Meg mutters, looking over her shoulder at Dean and Benny, then letting her eyes trail over to Cas.

And in that moment of distration, Garth's scared face fades almost immediately, and in one swift movement he lashes out with his leg and Dean can't even say what the kid does after that, but Meg ends up on her ass on the ground with Garth standing above her, one leg on her arm and her spear in his hand. "I'd like to see you try."

Meg raises her eyebrows rather approvingly, and Garth takes his foot off her arm to let her stand up. She reaches for her spear but Garth holds it away from her, only giving it back when Meg sends him a death glare that seems to scare him a lot.

"That was surprising," Dean comments, and Garth looks over him and shrugs, his ever-present smile returning to his lips.

"I was also trained in physical combat when I was a kid. You don't always have throwing knives around if someone were to attack you. Plus they're only really good for sneak attacks."

"Oh! That reminds me," Dean lets his voice trail off as he reaches into the bag on his pack and digs around for the bundle of knives.

He pulls out the black case and hands it to Garth, who grins as he opens it and pulls out the seven knives. "These are sick! How'd you get these?!"

"They were in one of the packs," Dean shrugs. "I kept them around in case we ran into you. All brand new."

Garth takes one knife in his hand, Dean isn't even paying attention until the knife lands in the tree trunk directly beside him. "Dude, what the hell?!" Dean demands, and Garth just laughs.

"I wasn't gonna hit you."

"You could've!"

"But I didn't," Garth says, pulling the knife out of the tree and putting them all back into the case.

"If you kill him, I'll kill you, okay?" Meg snaps, and Garth looks over at her, looking a bit scared even though he'd just knocked her to the ground.

Dean raises his eyebrows at her in surprise. She sends him a look over her shoulder, then rolls her eyes when she sees the look on Dean's face, then walks away from Garth. "Are we staying here, then?"

"I don't see why not," Benny shrugs, but Cas is the only one who looks like he has an issue.

"Are you sure they don't know you're here?"

"Who, the careers?" Garth asks, then shrugs when Cas nods. "Why would they?"

"Probably because you've had a damn signal fire burning for the past day," Meg mutters, kicking the fire with her boot angrily.

"If they haven't come yet, they probably won't," Garth shrugs, sitting on one of the log benches and holding his hands out towards the fire.

"They probably will," Dean says, and when Garth opens his mouth to say something with a bit of a worried look on his face, he's cut off by a two canons booming one after the other.

Immediately, Dean's mind is working quickly. It's have to be two groups, or at least one group. Nobody would kill someone and then kill themselves. So one person from one team would have to die, and then someone from that team would kill someone on the other. Or maybe two people from one team died.

The only teams Dean knows of are the seven careers, Jo and Adam and Anna, and them. That would leave Becky and Charlie, so unless they're both dead, Dean isn't sure what to think.

"How much longer until dusk?" Cas asks, eyes closed, and Benny raises his hand up to the sky. He does some weird thing with his hands before saying anything.

"Bout an hour or so."

"Alright, we'll find out who else is dead then. Hopefully it's Raphael and another career. Fingers crossed for Ruby or Kali," Meg laughs a bit, sitting on one of the other log benches.

As Dean thinks back, he recalls Meg talking to Ruby and Kali. "Weren't they your friends?" He asks her, and she shrugs.

"Nope. Best they die on their own, saves me the work."

Nobody says anything else.

 

* * *

 

By the time dusk falls, all of them look like they're going to fall asleep on their feet. Even when the anthem starts to play, they don't look very awake. Dean thinks the only person who isn't going to fall asleep sitting there is him.

The anthem ends, and then the faces show. Two deaths that day. Six deaths in the first two days.

The first face is Kali. The second is Becky.

Dean hadn't wanted Becky to be dead. But her beig dead confirmed his group theory. Kali had probably been with Gabriel, and Becky may have even killed her before Gabriel killed Becky.

The screen fades black again, and everyone's silent except for a quiet sniff from Garth.

Dean turns to look at him, and he almost says something when Cas walks over and sits down beside him, and Dean decides to just eavesdrop.

"She was my district partner," Garth whispers. "Not only that, she was my friend. I was looking for her."

"You couldn't have both survived, Garth," Cas whispers, and Garth shakes his head.

"I thought I'd have been out before her. Guess not."

It's silent for a moment until Garth stands up and walks towards the tarp tent. A few moments later, Kevin walks out, looking a bit groggy and tired. He stops dead when he sees the group gathered around the fire and casts a glance over his shoulder at Garth in the tarp tent. "It's alright, Kevin, we're allies," Cas says, and Kevin studies his face for a moment before nodding without a word.

"You guys can go to bed," Dean says to the rest of them. "I'll keep watch out here with Kevin."

"You sure?" Benny asks, and Dean nods at him while doing his best to not look tired.

He sits in silence, waiting until he's sure they're asleep to start talking. "So how's your day been?" He asks ironically, which earns him a tired incredulous look from Kevin. "Okay... Uh, how's things been going over here?"

"Fine," Kevin mutters.

"Fine?"

"No, not fine. We're stuck in the damn Hunger Games, of course it's not fine," he snaps, and Dean nods while making a face.

"Well, alright then."

"Sorry," Kevin mutters, shaking his head with a sigh. "I'm sorry."

Dean watches him for a moment before reaching out and clasping him over the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

Another awkward silence, and Dean has to rake his mind to find something to talk about. "You're the youngest here, right?" Kevin nods slowly, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"Could be worse," Dean shrugs, leaning back on the tree standing behind him. "You could be twelve."

"How is that relevant to anything?" Kevin asks. He doesn't say it angrily, though. He says it in a strained tone while he looks up at Dean with tired eyes, and Dean stares down at him while trying not to look like he pities him, even though he absolutely does.

"I was trying to find a bright side, I guess."

"There is no bright side, Dean," Kevin sighs, looking back at the ground. He lapses back into silence for a moment before speaking up again. "There's absolutely no bright side to this. We're stuck in a fight to the death and only one of us can make it out alive, and I don't know about you, but I'm pretty certain that there's no way in Hell I'm making it out of here at all. My mom is alone, my girlfriend is dead and I don't know how much longer I have, either."

"Your girlfriend?" Dean asks, and Kevin sighs.

"Yeah. Twelve's never been really strict in the whole Peacekeeper section, it really takes a lot to piss them off around there."

"You're saying that Peacekeepers killed your girlfriend?" Dean asks, and Kevin shrugs.

"Yeah. It was, uh..." Kevin chokes a bit, turning his head completely away from Dean until he seems to have calmed himself down a bit. "It was at the reaping. My name was called and she tried to fight them off or something, I don't even know what happened, it all happened so fast. I just know that one moment she was calling my name, and in the time it took me to turn around, they'd already killed her. I think the worst thing about it is that I'll never know what really happened. Nobody told me when I had my goodbyes, and then I was shipped off here. Nobody would tell me anything, and they never will. Garth won't say a thing about it. I wasn't allowed to watch twelves reaping on the train, or anything along those lines. Our mentor wouldn't let us."

Dean wishes he could help. But he hadn't even bothered to rewatch the reapings, nor had anyone informed him that someone had died at twelve's. "I'm sorry," Dean whispers, not knowing what else to say, and Kevin only shrugs again.

"Whatever. It's not like I can do anything about it."

Dean tries to recall everything he knows about Kevin, everything everyone had ever told him about the kid. Just a few basic things, like how he was completely incapable with almost all weapons, and that he was the youngest tribute in the games this year. And that he's a genius.

He couldn't remember who'd told him that Kevin was way above his age's usual intellect, but someone had definitely told him that.

"What?" Kevin asks, jolting Dean out of his thoughts and making him blink in surprise.

"What?" Dean repeats, and Kevin raises an eyebrow at him.

"You're looking at me weird," Kevin says, giving Dean a really odd look.

"Sorry, just... Thinking."

Kevin nods slowly, turning his head away and letting the two of them lapse back into silence.

Neither one of them say a word the rest of the night.

 

* * *

 

It's like deja vu the next morning. Everyone gets up and leaves the tent except Meg and Cas, and Dean just figures they're both sleeping in for whetever reason that is, and he goes about his buisness until Castiel's voice rings urgently from the tent.

"Dean, come here! Now!"

Dean, along with everyone else, rushes to the mouth of the tent to see Cas attempt to haul Meg's pale body out from below the tarp. "Oh God, not again," Benny whispers as Dean helps Cas get her out into the open.

"It's not too bad," Meg whispers, a small and clearly forced smile on her lips. "Not that bad."

"Meg-"

"You're gonna tell me I'm gonna die," Meg laughs, looking up at Castiel who looks back down at her with sad eyes. "I know that already, Clarence. Keep your dumb facts to yourself. You're just making yourself look stupid."

"What happened?" Dean asks, and Meg laughs again, a small, shaky breath out of her pale lips.

"I froze, dumbshit. What do you think happened?"

"You didn't have a sleeping bag," Benny whispers, and Meg slowly rotates her head to look at him.

"No. I didn't."

"What's going on in here?" Dean whispers, looking around the arena.

"Is someone going to kill me or do I have to do it myself with the only arm I currently have the ability to move?" Meg snaps with a laugh, her weak, shaky fingers reaching out to grab Castiel's angel blade from the loop in his pants. He catches her hand before she can grab it and they stare at each other for a moment while everyone else watches them.

"You killed Alfie, Cas. You can kill me," Meg smiles up at him a bit deviously.

"No, I can't. Not you."

"You have to," Meg whispers, shaking her head slightly. "I made you kill Alfie because he was like what I am now. You killed him, you've gotta kill me now, too."

"I can't," Cas whispers, and Meg sighs.

She reaches up with the one arm she can apparently only move, and grabs Cas by the back of his neck, then pulls him down and presses their lips together.

Dean's forced to watch as this happens until Cas pulls away and looks over at Dean sadly. "Dean, I can't. I'm sorry."

Meg watches as Dean slowly reaches forward, and Cas sits stiffly as he pulls the blade out of it's place. And then Meg laughs. "You're gonna kill me, Deany? Alright, make it quick. Maybe I'll see my mom in Hell."

Slowly but surely everyone gets the message and they all leave in seperate directions, leaving Meg and Dean alone. "Well, looks like it's just you and me, Dean-o. So, how's your day been? Mine's been great, in case you were wondering."

Dean sighs, shaking his head and reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. "We can help you. Cas can help you."

"There's no helping me, Dean," she sighs. "Not even Eight's got enough money to send something to save me. Now, chop chop, get a move on. We haven't got all day."

Dean looks down at the blade and Meg laughs. She laughs almost a bit manically, and then she starts to cry. " _Just do it!_ Fucking do it!"

Dean tries his best to not cry too much as he positions the blade over her heart, waiting for her to say something else. It takes a second for her to calm down, until she finally takes a deep breath and looks up at him. "Do it. _Please_."

And Dean shoves the blade into her heart.

 

* * *

 

Cas was the one to take her body away. He'd carried her out into the woods and returned a few minutes later, only to receed into the tent and not come back out until after the sun had set.

"I'll take night watch," he says, and Benny looks up at him with raised eyebrows.

"I'll stay up with you," Garth volunteers, but Cas looks down at him almost angrily, which makes Garth flinch.

"Alone," Cas growls, and Garth looks down at his feet awkwardly.

"You sure you don't want someone to stay up with you?" Benny asks, and Cas shakes his head.

"No, I'll be fine."

Dean's the last one to stay out of the tent besides Cas. After Garth, the last person up, goes to bed, Cas and Dean sit in somewhat awkward silence until Dean clears his throat.

"I don't want to talk, Dean," Cas says, his back turned to Dean so that he can't even see his face.

"Well, maybe I do," Dean says, and he watches as Castiel's shoulders sag down a bit. "Is this about Meg?"

"It's about all of it," he says, turning around on the log to face him. "Which one of us is next? Garth? Benny? Kevin? You? Me? All of us are going to die, Dean. We'd be lucky if one of us survives these games, but with Michael and Raphael in here, does that seem likely to you?" Dean doesn't answer, so Cas goes on. "Exactly. What are we going to do when we see Kevin lying on the ground with his throat slit? What are we going to do when Benny falls to the ground with a knife shoved into his heart? What are we going to do, Dean? Nothing. We're not going to do a thing, because we can't. Because if we do, they'll kill us. The Capitol will kill us if we try to do something about them killing other people. All we can do is stand back and watch our friends die, get other's blood on our hands and wonder who'll be next. Wonder if you'll be next, or if your friend will be next. Because you never know, and you can't do anything about it, either. This is just a sick killing game created for the likes of what disgusting, filty people would call entertainment. They've been brainwashed to the point where they don't even realize that they're enjoying watching children slaughter each other. Dean, this is the world. We live in a world where people watch kids kill each other for fun. Doesn't that bother you? Does that matter to you at all?"

"Of course it matters," Dean whispers, staring directly into Cas's eyes from across the firepit. Being from Nine, Dean doesn't exactly know what it's like to enjoy watching the games. But Cas is from Four, which is technically a career district. It's not surprising that they enjoy the games. "Of course it bothers me. But there isn't anything we can do, Cas. You said it yourself. It's not like we can bring up a revolution because we don't want to die within the next week."

"And that's what bothers me most," Cas says, looking away from Dean. They both fall into silence again until Dean gets up and leaves to go to bed.

 

* * *

 

The third case of hypothermia isn't the worst of the three. In fact, it's significantly better.

Still, that doesn't stop Dean from nearly having a heart attack when he wakes up to find that the third victim of the illness is him.

He sits up as quickly as he can, looking over his body. His fingers are pale, almost blue, and his hands are shaky. His breath comes out in short, ragged breath and he feels pretty disoriented.

He stumbles out of the tent, but only makes it just out of the mouth before he calls Castiel's name in a small, croaky voice. The dark-haired boy is on his knees beside him almost immediately, checking him over almost desperately. "Dean, what happened?"

Dean swallows, his throat dry, and shakes his head. "I don't know. I just woke up, and I was... Hypothermia. I don't know, Cas."

"It's alright," Cas whispers, putting his hand on Dean's forehead like his mother used to do when he was sick as a child. Dean lets out a sigh and closes his eyes, then shakes his head slowly and sadly.

"Kill me quick, don't take too long with it."

"Dean, we are not going to kill you." Cas says immidiately, earning a small argument from Kevin.

"I don't want to kill him either, Castiel, but didn't you guys kill Meg and Alfie because they had the same thing?"

"That doesn't matter. We are not killing him."

Dean watches the sad look cross Kevin's face as he sighs. "Cas-"

"He isn't dying!" Cas snarls, whipping his head around to send Kevin a death glare. The younger boy steps back as Cas stands and lets his shoulders loosen up again. " He's not as bad as they were. He's still showing signs of clear thinking, if we can just check if his muscles are disoriented... Dean, do you think you can stand up and walk to that log?"

"I don't need you to baby me," Dean says, pulling his arm away when Cas grabs it and attempting to pull himself to his feet defiantly. He stumbles when he gets upright and falls over a bit, but Cas and Benny catch him before he can hit the ground. "Again, don't baby me. I can take care of myself."

They let him go reluctantly, but stay close while he slowly makes his way to the log and sits down carefully. "There, you see? Fine. I'm fine."

"Dean-"

"I'm fine!"

Cas blinks in surprise, then looks over his shoulder, his eyes landing on Garth. "Get a sleeping bag and heat up some water on the fire." Garth stands there in slight shock until Cas yells "now!" and Garth scrambles to graab a bucket, then runs off to find water.

Benny puts a sleeping bag over Dean's shoulders and he pulls it close to him, starting to shiver pretty badly as he listens in on Cas and Benny's conversation.

"What's going on in here? This is the third case in four days, but it doesn't feel freezing in here at all. Not even during the night, which makes no sense at all," Cas whispers, and Benny sighs.

"I don't know. The Capitol, do you think they could find a way to make us freeze without feeling like we're freezing? It'd only be while we're asleep, though, and only if we're exposed. Alfie and Meg both didn't have sleeping bags, and all Dean had was other people's body heat. Plus you were out here without a blanket all night, and you don't look very hypothermic."

"I don't know," Cas says, and Dean watches him shake his head in defeat. "That seems like the only likely scenario to explain this."

He opens his mouth to say something but cuts himself off as a canon booms. Dean jumps to his feet, his hand instinctively reaching for his knife which he keeps in the inside of his jacket. Benny grabs the bow from beside his feet and loads it, Cas grips his angel blade tightly and Kevin, weaponless, hides behind them as they all stare out into the woods in the direction Garth disappeared.

After a few tense seconds, a figure breaks through the trees and Benny sends an arrow flying, which lodges into the tree beside Garth's head. "Naomi's dead," Garth pants, pulling the arrow out of the tree and giving it back to Benny. "They're right behind me."

"Who's they?" Benny asks, and Garth looks as if he's about to answer but is cut off as four more figures break through the treeline.

Dean can't help feeling relieved when he sees Michael and Gabriel. Michael had saved Dean's life on their first day in the arena, and Gabriel just didn't seem like the kind of guy Dean should be afraid of. But on the other hand, Raphael and Ruby are with them, too, which evens out the scale a bit.

Michael's got what Dean thinks is a machete in his hand, Raphael's got another spear, Ruby's got a knife and Gabriel doesn't have anything. One would usually think that a career wouldn't be dumb enough to leave camp without a weapon, until Dean remembers that Gabriel's weapon of choice is his hands. He'd watched him in training a few times and he'd seen the way the guy could run straight at a target while they fired weapons at him, and not one weapon had even scathed him before he tackled the opponent and choked them to death.

"Look, it's the Brady Bunch," Raphael sneers, and as much as Dean wants to be scared, he can't help but notice how out of context Raphael's reference was.

"Raphael," Cas growls, and Raphael raises his eyebrows at the shorter boy.

"Look, he speaks. What's the matter, Cassie, scared of a little fight?"

"Cas," Dean says in a low voice, and Raphael laughs.

"Castiel, I think your boyfriend's worried about you."

"He's not my boyfriend," Cas says in a dark voice, but Raphael doesn't seem phased at all.

"Close enough."

"Hey, Rafe, how's Kali and Naomi doing?" Dean asks, hoping to throw the guy off Cas a bit. He sees Gabriel flinch visibly, and almost feels a bit bad, but brushes it off. Careers don't deserve his empathy.

"Pretty good, how are Meg and Alfie doing?" Raphael shoots back, which makes Cas flinch beside Dean. Dean holds in a sigh and shoves Cas behind him, which makes Raphael laugh. "We were just passing through. Don't worry."

"Then you'd better get moving," Dean snaps. Raphael smirks at him, and as the dark-skinned boy turns, Dean tenses, preparing for what he's certain is coming.

It seems as if it's slow-motion when Raphael turns around and launches his spear straight into Dean. And, before he can blink, Benny's standing in front of him, and then the spear launches itself into Benny's chest. The tall boy falls to his knees as Dean watches, horrified, but not oblivious to the fact that the careers are now launching themselves at the rest of them.

Dean's ears ring as he slashes with his knife, slicing down Raphael's forearm as the taller boy attempts to get his spear back. Benny's canon still hasn't went off, though, which mean's the boy is still alive, and if Dean can end this fight fast enough, there's still a chance he can be saved.

He fumbles with the knife for a moment, and once he realizes it's slipping out of his hand, he drops it and switches to punching. His fist slams straight into Raphael and sends the boy flying to the ground, and Dean grabs the spear from his hands and throws it down at him. Raphael rolls out of the way, then lashes out with his legs and knocks Dean to the ground. Dean wonders for a moment if Garth saw him do this in training, because it's the same move the smaller boy had done on Meg.

He attempts to get to his feet, but a foot on his neck pushes him back down and he looks up as far as he can to see Ruby's face smirking down at him. "Hello, Dean."

"Oh, I always knew you were a bitch," Dean mutters, which makes Ruby laugh. She bends over and pulls out her knife, and Dean squeezes his eyes and prepares for death when suddenly the weight is lifted off of him and he opens his eyes to see Cas glaring at Ruby, who's now lying on the ground next to Dean. As quickly as he can, he reaches for the knife he'd dropped and stabs it into Ruby's chest, and she makes a choking sound before her head falls back and a canon booms.

Dean scrambles to his feet, trying to fight off the feeling of sickness because now is not the time for that, and as he's about to launch himself back into the fight, he feels almost distraught when he hears Kevin's cry of pain and watches as the boy drops to his knees, clutching his stomach with his arms and curling into a vulnerable ball on the ground, the spear sticking out of where his arms are clutching and Raphael looking down at him with a sick smile on his face.

All Dean can see is white rage as he runs straight at Raphael, then slams into him and takes him down to the ground, throwing punches at his face left and right. Despite being sick Dean finds he feels stronger than ever, and with every other feeble cough of Kevin's, Dean punches harder. He finally stops when a weight throws him off and he looks up to see Gabriel glaring down at him, clenching his fists into tight balls and panting. "Don't touch him."

Dean doesn't say anything, and Gabriel kicks him in the side, and Dean coughs as Cas helps him sit up and watch as Gabriel, Michael and Raphael retreat.

"Kevin! Benny!" Dean yells, crawling being the fastest way to get to the small boy still coughing on the ground. Cas is kneeling next to Benny now, holding his hands down on the wound as Dean wraps his hand around the stick of the spear sticking out of Kevin and pulls it out, trying his best to ignore the boy's cries of pain.

"Dean," Kevin whispers in a small, shaky voice once the spear is out and Dean can't fight the tears slipping out of his eyes as he shakes his head quickly.

"No. You're not-"

"I'm sorry," Kevin whispers, and Garth drops to his knees, too, grabbing the boy in his arms and letting himself weep into his shoulder until the canon goes off. That's when Garth loses it, and Dean almost doesn't understand why until he realizes that Garth and Kevin weren't only close in training, but they were all each other had in the first little while of the games.

Dean leaves Garth have his moment and he makes his way over to Cas and Benny. "Dean," Benny says in a low voice, a smile spreading across his face. He reaches up to run his hand down Dean's cheek as even more tears escape his eyes, and Benny laughs a bit. "Why is it that I knew I was going to die for you?"

"You shouldn't have done that," Dean chokes, and Benny laughs again, his smile fading slowly.

"Win these damn games, Dean. Win."

Dean nods, and as Benny's hand starts to slide down Dean's face limply, he reaches out and grabs his wrist, holding it tightly as Benny's eyes slowly close and not letting go until the third canon goes off.

Dean sits there in silent shock.

Cas puts his head in his hands.

Garth screams.

 

* * *

 

None of the three remaining people in their ally group say a word for the rest of the day.

Dean does his best to tune out Garth's quiet, consistent crying in the new tent the boy's built after they'd walked for hours to find a new campsite, and Castiel's staring. He keeps his eyes on the ground, completely aware that Cas has been staring at him the entire day. Garth retreated before the showing of the dead tributes showed, and Dean and Cas are forced to watch as the faces show up in the sky, one by one. Ruby. Benny. Kevin. It's only when Garth's crying subsides and he's sure that the younger boy is asleep that Dean speaks. "It's not polite to stare."

"I don't care."

Dean sighs, and opens his mouth to say something, but Cas cuts him off. "Dean. You can't blame yourself."

"Watch me," Dean mutters, and Cas gets up and walks over to sit on the ground beside him.

"They were always going to die. Or you. You can't save everyone, Dean. You shouldn't. You should accept what happens and move on, because with every death, ally or not, you're one step closer to seeing your brother again."

"Weren't you the one who was all lets start a revolution last night?" Dean asks, not meaning to snap it but doing to anyway. Cas doesn't seem bothered, though.

"Go to bed, Dean."

"I'm keeping watch tonight," Dean shakes his head. "You watched last night."

"I don't care. You need the sleep more than I do," Cas insists.

"Cas-"

"I'll watch. You two go," a small voice squeaks from behind them, and they both turn to see Garth standing there, his arms folded tightly across his chest with red, puffy eyes and tense shoulders.

"Garth-"

"I said go," Garth growls, and Dean really doesn't want to argue with him when he obviously feels worse than he does, so he leaves him have his way. On his way to the tent, he stops next to Garth to talk to him quickly.

"Are you okay?"

Garth nods stiffly, but doesn't let Dean say anything else. He walks off to sit at the edge of the campsite, his back to Dean and Cas as they both climb into Garth's tent.

 

* * *

 

The next day is the day Dean sets himself on revenge.

A canon going off is what wakes Dean up from the nightmare he's having about him and Cas being the last two in the arena and having to kill off the boy.

Dean walks out to the campfire where Cas and Garth are sitting in silence, and before either one of them realize he's there, he drops the small bag in front of them which makes Garth jump a bit.

"Feelin better, Dean?" Cas asks, and Dean only nods stiffly. "Why did you bring out the bag of mathces?"

"Because we're going to kill those sons of bitches. We're going to burn them where they stand."

Cas and Garth both look slightly mortified, and Dean finds himself wishing even more now that Meg and Benny weren't dead, because with their death left Dean with two mercifull pansy-asses. "Garth, they killed Kevin. Cas, Meg is dead. And they killed Benny. Garth, how many times have they almost killed you now? Three?"

Garth shrugs, and Dean figures he hasn't exactly been keeping count at how many times he's almost been killed at the hands of a career. "Two, I think."

"Alright. Do you think they gave us enough tinder to make a circle big enough to surround all of their campsite and not risk us being seen while laying it down?" Dean asks, and Cas shrugs.

"I don't know. If I had to bed, I'd say that the careers might have enough gasoline there to do it. That'd be our only hope."

"Pack up the site. Make a signal fire there, use lots of leaves and needles and stuff. Make sure it'll smoke when we light it up. And once it's lit, we're going to the career's camp."

 

* * *

 

The plan goes rather smoothly at first. Cas lights the fire after they've packed up everything, and then they get moving. Dean's got a death grip on his bag of matches, not letting Garth or Cas carry it at all. For some reason he feels like this is bigger than just beating Raphael. This is going to include Michael, who Dean owes his life to because of what he'd done on the first day, and Gabriel, who'd also made the choice to spare Dean his life instead of killing him, which he could have done easily and unconsequencially. Even killing Jessica, who is one of the last people Dean would want to see die.

But he shoves all those thoughts aside. They all have to die if he's going to see Sam again. Dean tries to ignore the fact that "they all" includes Castiel and Garth, and even Jo. He can't afford to think about other people. He's already doing so, but he decides that he needs to stop doing it.

They walk for a while until Cas finally convinces Dean to take a short break. He allows this, but only on the terms that he and Garth don't wander far and are back after five minutes.

Dean sits on the stump of a tree, looking around the forest and getting lost in his own thoughts. He's fairly oblivious to the fact that there's someone aprroaching from behind him, until finally they grab his shoulder and he jumps to his feet, whipping around with his knife held outwards. He drops it as soon as he sees who's standing there. "Jo?"

"Heya, Dean," she smiles. She smiles. She smiles a warm, sweet smile and pulls Dean into a hug. "I'm so glad I found you."

"You've been looking for me?" Dean asks, accepting her hug.

She pulls away and looks up at him rather confusedly. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just assumed because you had Adam and Anna," Dean says, his voice trailing off when he sees the two people on either side of Jo. Adam is on her left, though the person on her right isn't Anna. The hair color is close enough, but not Anna. No, this is Kevin's district partner, Charlie.

"You're with-"

"Charlie, yeah. Bit, uh, weird, but she knows her way around all the technological stuff. Plus she's pretty handy with a sword."

Dean nods, finally understanding a bit. Jo was completely against Charlie being Dean's ally because she thought Charlie was useless. Ironic.

"So, you got a headcount on who's left?" Jo asks, dropping her pack and sitting on Dean's tree stump as if she owns the damn place.

"Uh... Well, I've got Cas and Garth-"

"Figures," Jo mutters under her breath, but Dean ignores it and moves on.

"And there's only four careers left. Raphael, Michael, Gabriel and Jessica."

"And, uh Kevin and Benny. I saw," Jo says, and Dean tries not to flinch but does so anyway.

"Yeah. So how many does that leave?"

"Ten," Adam says, and Dean looks over at him and raises an eyebrow.

"Eleven, isn't it? What about Anna?"

"Dead," Jo says, looking down at the ground for a split second before throwing her hair over her shoulder and crossing her arms. "Died this morning. Froze to death, however the hell that happened."

This surprises Dean. "Anna had hypothermia?"

"Is that what it's called?" Jo asks, and Dean nods. "Hmm. Learn something new every day."

"We lost Alfie and Meg to hypothermia. It almost got me, too. What happened to Anna?"

"We don't know. She fell asleep on guard, and when we found her in the morning she wouldn't wake up. We had to kill her or else she's just sit there wasting away until she died anyway."

Dean nods in understanding and in thought. So it's not only Alfie and Meg, then. Other people in the arena have been lost to the disease. "Yeah, we got a bit of that, too. We figure it's something that makes you freeze without realizing you're freezing, and that it can only get to you if you're exposed and asleep."

"Makes sense. None of us had falled asleep on guard yet, and the people who slept shared the sleeping bag Adam grabbed from the cornucopia."

Dean looks at Adam a bit approvingly, not really having expected the kid to have dove into the bloodbath. "Well Cas and Garth should be back anytime now, and then we're gonna get a move on, so unless you want to..."

"Want to what?" Jo laughs a bit, taking a step towards Dean and looking up at him. "Come with you?"

"If you want," Dean says, taking a step back and away from her.

"Where are you headed?"

Dean takes a deep breath before he answers. "The cornucopia."

"Why the hell-"

"They killed Kevin and Benny," Dean says, cutting her off and not waiting for an answer before he turns and goes to walk out into the forest to find Cas and Garth.

"Does it matter that much?" Jo asks, grabbing Dean by the arm and forcing him to turn around.

"Of course it matters," Dean says, repeating the words he'd said to Cas when the boy had asked if it mattered to Dean that the world made children kill each other for entertainment.

"Really? Dean, do you not realize that their deaths gets you one step closer to going home?" Jo asks, and Dean pulls his arm out of her grip angrily.

"How is it so easy for you to think like that?" He asks, making her step back and look at the ground guiltily. He knew what Meg would say if she were here; _this ain't no guilt show, this is the Hunger Games. Get over the fact that people are dying._ But, then again, Meg also had completely different ways of thinking than Dean. She didn't seem too bothered at the prospect of killing children. She'd killed Bela and forced Cas to kill Alfie without seeming even the slightest bit guilty.

"Because I want to go home," Jo says in a low voice, and Dean stares down at her until he hears someone else approach, and turns to see Garth standing behind him.

"You found them?" He asks, looking over the three newcomers and smiling when he sees the red-haired girl. "Charlie."

"Garth," she smiles back, and Dean can't help but notice the look of sadness on Garth's face as he is obviously being reminded of Kevin's death.

"So are you coming or not?" Dean asks, turning his back to Jo to see Cas standing a few yards away. The boy looks cautious, for whatever reason that is. Probably because of his trust issues, because he'd hardly trusted Dean on the first day.

"What are you planning to do when you get there?" Jo asks, and Dean takes a deep breath before turning back around to look at her while Cas makes his way over.

"Well, we're not going to have a tea party with them."

Jo rolls her eyes, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder and crossing her arms. "What are you going to do, Dean?"

"Um, if I can interject here..." Garth says, taking a step forward to come inbetween Jo and Dean. "We're wasting time. They're probably away from their camp now, probably halfway to the fire. We should really get a move on."

"Good idea," Dean says with a glare at Jo before he turns around and walks away, Cas and Garth trailing behind him. "Tag along if you want, I couldn't care less."

 

* * *

 

The three of them do end up following Dean, Cas and Garth. It takes about an hour or so of walking to make it to the career's camp, and when they do, Dean takes it upon himself to get as close as he can to check it out.

Cas was right, they're loaded with gasoline. There's about five containers of the stuff sitting on the outside of the cornucopia not too close to the fire, but close enough that their lazy asses wouldn't have to go through too much effort to carry it over. He sends a silent thank-you to the people who stocked the place for putting the fire-starter in there, and as he looks to the right of the cornucopia he sees that they're all gone, probably to the signal fire, while leaving only Gabriel behind.

Dean retreats back to the other five, already formulating a plan in his mind. "So?" Jo asks when he makes it back, and he looks them all over before speaking up.

"They've got gasoline. But we're gonna have to be quick. They also left Gabriel here, so we'll have to take him out before we start."

Cas nods solemnly, as does everone else except Garth and Charlie, who just look scared. "And how do you expect to kill them?" Jo asks, and Dean takes a deep breath.

"First of all we'll have to make a circle. Just to keep them in. And then I was thinking we could lay it out in a spiral sort of thing, and after a while it'll just light everything up. They won't stand a chance."

"Don't you think they'll notice all the gasoline on the ground?" Adam asks, and Dean shrugs.

"We'll just have to hope they don't."

"And who's gonna light it? And what are we gonna light it with?" Adam raises an eyebrow at Dean, who rolls his eyes and tosses the sack of matches at the kid.

"That's what. And I will. This was my idea, so I'll take the risk. You guys can run as soon as it's set, get as far away from here as you can."

"But you'll be alone if we lose you," Charlie argues, and Dean looks over at her sadly.

"That's okay, you'll be fine without me."

"Dean."

Dean doesn't turn his head to look at the source of the voice. He closes his eyes and looks down at the ground, and stays that way until a hand grabs his arm and he's forced to look up into Castiel's sad gaze. "I'm not letting you do this alone."

"Cas-"

"No. I'll stay with you. We can do this together."

"I'm not going to let you die for me," Dean sighs, and Castiel's gaze hardens a bit.

"And I'm not going to let you die without me."

Dean stares at him for a moment longer before sighing. There's really no point in trying to change Castiel's mind. So he lets it be. "Alright, then. You four, get a move on once the stuff is set. Run as fast and far as you can, don't worry about us."

"If he's staying, I'm staying," Garth says, crossing his arms defiantly. "They killed Kevin. I'm not letting that go easily."

Dean raises his eyebrows at this. "Anyone else want to argue?"

"Well, why can't we stay?" Charlie asks with a shrug as she looks over at Jo and Adam.

"We may as well. These games are probably going to end tomorrow," Jo says, dropping her bag onto the ground and pulling a knife out of one of the pouches. "Might as well do something crazy while we're still alive."

"Yeah. I'm in, too," Adam says with a nod, fixing his grip on Meg's spear which Dean had asked him to carry.

Dean looks them over slowluy, his gaze lingering on Castiel's face longest before he nods. "Alright. I'll deal with Gabriel, you guys set the gas."

 

* * *

 

Dean does his best not to make a noise as he sneaks up behind Gabriel. He does his best to aim the bow after loading it, though he's not sure if it's set right because nobody else knew how to load a bow and Benny had only showed him once.

His heart stops when he steps on a twig and it snaps, and he mentally curses himself as Gabriel turns around and sees him.

He sends an arrow flying immediately, but it misses Gabriel as the boy starts running at Dean full-speed. Dean grabs another arrow and loads the bow and sends it flying, managing to get it into Gabriel's arm, which slows him down a bit but Gabriel just pulls it out and holds it in his hand as he makes it to Dean and grabs him by the collar of his shirt, slamming him against the metal cornucopia.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Gabriel snarls, and Dean coughs a bit because the guy is choking him. "You really are stupid, arent you?"

Dean, in one quick burst of energy, Dean brings his knee up and uses it to push Gabriel away from him. The boy stumbles back and lands on his back on the ground, and Dean stands above him, loads the bow and takes aim at his throat.

"I'm sorry."

And he sends the arrow flying.

The canon goes off as Gabriel's head hits the ground, and Dean knows once you kill someone you're supposed to clear out to let the Capitol collect the body, but he has more important things to worry about than the rules.

The other five rush in as soon as the canon booms, and Dean hands them each a container of gasoline. Jo and Adam are responsible for the circle around the camp, while Cas, Garth and Charlie each make a spiral from the outer circle leading into the middle of the cornucopia.

It only takes about fifteen minutes for it to be done. They all put the containers back where they were and clear out, making their way to the shelter of the treeline to wait for the rest of them to come back.

They wait for around an hour until the rest of the careers get back, and Dean realizes with a sinking feeling that he'd almost forgotten Jessica is a career, too. He shrugs it off, though. He can't afford remorse. They killed Benny and Kevin.

Dean can't make out distinct words, but he can hear Raphael raging when he sees Gabriel's dead body on the ground with an arrow sticking out of it and he can just tell that he's plotting how to kill them all.

Dean gives the signal then, and they pass along the match box. Each person lights two matches, and at the same time, they drop all ten matches and watch as the circle ignites.

And then they run.

They run, trying to tune out the sounds of three teenaged people screaming as they burn to death. They run until they're certain that the fire won't reach them, they run until they see the smoke die down and hear two canons go off.

Only two.

Dean stops dead in his tracks. "Someone survived."

 

* * *

 

That night shows the survivor of the forest fire they'd set off.

The first face is Michael. Dean tries his best not to feel bad about it, even though Michael had spared him his life on the first day. He can't help but wish that the survivor is Jessica, but when her face lights up the sky he feels even worse.

"Raphael is still out there," Jo whispers as Dean's gaze trails to the ground.

"He won't last long," Cas says, obviously trying to make them- mostly Dean- feel better. "He's got no supplies, they're all burnt. He probably has no food, no way to make a fire, nothing. If he doesn't freeze to death tonight, we'll take him down tomorrow."

"If he doesn't take us down, first," Adam mutters, earning a glare from Cas. "Well, come on! You might have just killed us all in that one stupid move!"

"I never said you had to go through with it!" Dean yells back, getting to his feet to make a point of having the height advantage. "I told you all to leave! You made the choice to stay! I never made you do anything!"

"I would have gone if I knew Raphael wasn't going to die!"

"You should have!" Dean snarls, and Adam seems to break there. He lashes out and slams his entire body into Dean, knocking him over and tackling him to the ground.

Dean has the lower hand as Adam continually slams his fists into his face, and it's only when Cas and Jo pull him off does Dean finally get to take a breath.

Adam collapses to the ground in a solemn heap, his back shaking as he cries. "I just want to go home."

"We all do," Jo says, bending over to kneel beside him and putting her hand on his back comfortingly. "Dean just took out two of the people standing in the way of you going home. Can't you be grateful about that? You're one step closer to going home."

Adam pulls away from her, falling back to land in a cross-legged sitting position and looking up at the sky. "Yeah, okay. Whatever. I'm thirsty, I'm going to get some water."

"I'll come with you," Charlie says, and Adam gets to his feet and walks over to her.

"Are you sure it's safe? You never know what's out there," Jo says, and Adam shrugs.

"We'll be fine. Throw my the bottle."

Jo pulls an empty bottle out of her bag and tosses it to Adam. He catches it, and with a nod to the rest of them, he and Charlie walk into the darkness of the woods and out of Dean's eyesight.

"Should we light a fire? Do you think Raphael will be out looking?" Garth asks, and for some reason everyone looks at Cas for the answer.

"I wouldn't think so. He'll probably get looking in the morning," Cas says with a shrug. "I think we're safe from him for tonight."

His words prove wrong, though, when two canons go off. Jo's the first to jump to her feet, followed by Dean, Garth and Cas. She goes to run into the woods after them, but Dean catches her arm before she can and they all stand there in silence until they realize that it wasn't Raphael who killed them.

The four of them slowly group together as the animal approaches. It's a massive dog-like figure, it's back probably the height of Dean's shoulders. It's eyes glow red and Dean recalls it from the games five years ago. This is a hellhound, a capitol contraption.

It's also the thing that killed Jo's brother, Ash, in his games.

He hadn't forgotten that Jo's brother died in the games, he'd just tried his best not to think about it because he didn't want to accidentally bring it up in front of her. Nobody in District Nine talked about Ash to the rest of the Harvelles.

This creature wasn't only here to kill them, it was a sick reminder to not only Jo, but to everyone. Obviously Jo wasn't a fan favourite in the games, which means that Dean was. Dean was a fan favourite. Obviously not a huge favourite, because if he were, he'd have gotten at least one thing from the sponsors, but that isn't important. People were rooting for him.

Jo looks as if she's going to collapse having this reminder standing in front of her after killing her two closest allies and her brother, and Dean knows he has to do something, so as fast as he can, he grabs the spear from the ground halfway between him and the hellhound and launches it at the beast. It lands in it's leg, which only seems to make it angrier, and it comes barrelling towards them, slower than expected having a spear lodged in it's knee.

It runs slow enough for them to be able to keep ahead of it. Dean doesn't know why the cornucopia is the place he wants to get to, but that's his goal.

Another hellhound joins chase, this one much faster, and Dean calls for everyone to jump into a tree and climb. Thankfully everyone apparently knows how to do so, and they all make it high enough up to be out of the animals' reach as they catch their breath.

"Is this the grand finale?" Cas asks from his branch across from Dean's, and Dean nods.

"I think so."

"So, genius, now that we're up here, how do we get down?"

Jo's question is answered as knife after knife lodge themselves into the animals until both drop dead, and Dean grins as he looks over at Garth's tree.

"I only have one left," Garth says as they all climb down from their trees.

"I've got a bow. Cas, you still got that blade?" Dean asks. Cas answers by pulling it out from under his jacket, and Dean nods.

"I've got this piece of shit knife," Jo says, opening her jacket and pulling out Benny's dull knife.

"Good. Now let's get a move on before more show up."

They keep a steady pace all the way to the cornucopia just in time to have three more hellhounds make themselves present. Dean curses under his breath and they all break into a run, making it to the cornucopia and jumping up.

Dean, Jo and Cas all manage to make it up, but as Garth climbs up, a hellhound grabs his leg and tries to tear him down. Dean catches his hand and tries to pull him up, Cas and Jo eventually trying to help, too, but the hellhound is too strong and pulls the scrawny boy out of their grasp.

"Garth!" Dean yells after him, the boy's blood-curling screams sending a chill down his spine and forcing him to cover his ears. He only takes them off when a second scream joins, and he looks over just in time to see Raphael shove Michael's machete into Jo's chest. _"Jo!"_  Dean screams, scrambling to his feet. How he didn't see Raphael on top of the cornucopia in the first place, he has no idea. But when the two canon's boom as Raphael discards Jo's body over the edge as hellhound food, his gleaming white smile pierces through the darkness and sends a chill down his spine.

Dean clutches the bow in his hand, loaded with the single arrow he managed to grab before the hellhounds killed Adam and Charlie. Raphael sees this and laughs, and Dean almost screams when he sees Cas sneaking up behind him with the angel blade in his hand.

"Where's your boyfriend, Dean?" Raphael asks, and it's nobody's fault but his own when Dean's gaze flickers over Raphael's shoulder.

The dark-skinned boy notices this, and in one swift movement, whips around, knocks the blade out of Castiel's hand and throws him down to the metal roof of the cornucopia.

"Cas!" Dean yells, and Raphael laughs. He laughs almost manically, which is enough the stop Dean in his tracks.

"I've trained my whole life for this! I get to go home, to be a hero! All I have to do... Is kill your sorry asses, and I get to leave. That's all I have to do. This is too easy. Too easy," Raphael's voice drops to a whisper as his eyes slowly trail down to Cas, but Cas isn't looking at Raphael at all.

It's as if the boy isn't even aware of Raphael's imminent danger. His head is turned to stare at Dean, as if he knows what's coming. Dean watches as Cas's mouth moves, but he can't make out the words.

And then he's running full-speed at Raphael.

But he's not fast enough.

_"CAS!"_

Dean makes it to them just as Raphael slashes his machete across Castiel's neck.

"You son of a bitch!" Dean screams, sending his arrow flying and landing it in Raphael's skull. The boy falls over sideways, off the side of the cornucopia and into the hellhound pit with Jo and Garth as his canon goes off.

"Cas, please, no," Dean whispers, tears spilling out of his eyes and down his cheeks at a ridiculous pace. " _Cas_."

"Dean," Cas whispers, his hand reaching out and feeling around for Dean's and grabbing it once he finds it. "You won."

"No, not without you. Cas, please."

"You won, Dean," Cas whispers, the light slowly fading from his eyes. Despite this, though, he smiles. "You won."

"Cas, no."

"You won."

Castiel's eyes close and his head falls back onto Dean's lap, the last canon goes off, and it's then that Dean loses it.

He drops his head down to Cas' chest, letting himself shake with how hard he's crying, and not realizing that the dark arena is now filled with light until the booming voice forces him to put his head up.

_"Ladies and gentleman, the victor of the sixty-seventh annual Hunger Games, from District Nine, Dean Winchester!"_


End file.
